[Vicious Music]

It’s the deepness that first gets you when listening to this early Detroit house classic on the short lived Vicious Music label. The pads float on and on like endless clouds filling the sky, the bass burrowing beneath your feet, urging them to raise up and move. This 1992 record was one of only a handful of releases for the British born D’Pac who, together with his brother, had emigrated to Detroit via Toronto in the mid 80’s before they moved back to Canada to focus on their Immigrant Soul project. Backed with the upfront house of “Wouldn’t Lie” featuring Terence FM on vocals, the cuts also had a helping hand from Chez Damier on production duties, which goes some way to explaining the unmistakable Detroit house sound.

The organ tones present on “Everybody” give the track its most recognizable affiliation with house music, also adding an ecclesiastical touch which was a big part of the vocals from that era. With a multitude of break downs throughout the track those lofty pads are allowed to ride, giving “Everybody” a soaring spatial depth. Over on the flip, “Wouldn’t Lie” gets two different mixes; the “Wouldn’t” mix is a dub of sorts, piano keys giving way to deep organ chords and latterly, horns bubbling over the top of Terence FM’s simple refrain. The “Shouldn’t” mix features the full vocal and is a much deeper affair, the bass line more rounded, the groove more subtle. There is a heart and soul in this record that a thousand VST plug-ins couldn’t match; it is inherent in much of the Detroit house music from around this period and is so often emulated today with varying degrees of success. I think it was Stacey Pullen who once said that you can tell within five seconds of putting a record on whether it contains that magic feeling, and D’Pac’s “Everybody / Wouldn’t Lie” surely has it.